1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for the addition and deletion of attribute information regarding captured images in an apparatus that has an image capturing function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image processing apparatus has been proposed in which location information is added to an image after the image is captured (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-027647, which is referred to hereinafter as Document 1).
According to Document 1, an image capture apparatus records a captured image as an image file, and a mobile information terminal that can communicate with the image capture apparatus acquires location information using GPS. The image capture apparatus then receives that location information from the mobile information terminal, and adds the location information to the already-recorded image file as part of its attribute information.
In general, location information as defined by EXIF, which represents image attribute information, exists in the header portion of an image file, and the insertion of location information there increases the size of the header portion, thus requiring subsequent image data to be moved by that amount of increase. Also, even assuming that an area for writing location information has been allocated in advance, since indeterminate values are not defined in location information as defined by EXIF, the allocated data will necessarily be treated as data indicating location information for somewhere in the world.